The 2011 class blog for students taking COM115.9, a course on contemporary horror cinema.

Halloween

Halloween is a movie that I really liked because it was a very in your face type of horror movie. Not that I like being hurt or I am a masochist or what, but I think I generally enjoy the feeling of being frightened, and this is what is all about, that for me, all the slashing here and there and the blood spurts on people is what really frightens me but also in the same time hooks me into watching horror films. Halloween is another example of a trope-based kind of horror, the setting itself is scary and even if the characters are not there yet or not even there, the setting can be enough to scare already, even without the characters yet doing anything. I liked the movie because it didn’t have lack of entertainment and action, I guess with action here and there you tend to get carried away with the things you experience. Also I liked the movie because I feel that this was a change from the other movies we have been previously watching, not that I do not like the other movies, its just something different. Like for other movies, the horror for me really is when I think that if such a case happens to me what will I do to avoid such a scenario or something, but for Halloween, the end of the day situation is you’re doomed, its just a matter of time and how you will be killed. Again I am not a masochist, but that idea gives me the thrill and this is the reason on why I really enjoyed the movie. Another thing that is worth being noted is also that he came from a mental institution, and I guess this is why society deems people with mental disabilities as a weaker being. I will go a little philosophical here, but if you look how society works, it is actually funny. The oppression of society to values and to certain people is also what society is afraid of. The bullying and the frown upons that society has instilled has turned certain people really hate living in this world. This is how society acts contrafictory, in a way if society could only treat people equally and right, and probably the world can be a better place, call me idealistic, but I think it makes sense. Such as if society were to treat or treated the guy probably better and did not have any discrimination towards his mental disability, then maybe he could have not turned into that monster that society is afraid of. He could be someone different, may be even someone who could have helped society in a certain way. Sadly though, this is how society was in the context of the movie and this is how it is until today, it is really the nature of man sometimes to act without proper judgment or reflection. I guess horror is just a genre, but lessons can always be learened in any genre, and Halloween is just an example of how media has become a mirror of society and the works of man with the natural being of the character.